(indieWIRE: 07.11.02) -- Plans for one of the U.K.'s largest film events,the Edinburgh International Film Festival, have been announced. Scottishdirector Lynne Ramsay's "Morvern Callar" will open the 12-day event, thedirector opened the 2000 EIFF with her debut film "Ratcatcher."

Festival favorites including Gary Winick's award-winning "Tadpole" andFrancois Ozon's Berlin screener "8 Women" (8 femmes) are among the100-plus films screening at the festival from August 14 - 25. The EIFFwill also feature international work including Argentine director JuanJose Campanella's "The Son of the Bride," described by the festival asa "contemporary comedy, which was nominated for best foreign languagefilm at this year's Academy Awards." Also scheduled is Shunji Iwai's"All About Lily Chou-Chou" and French director Catherine Breillat's"Sex is Comedy."

(indieWIRE: 07.11.02) -- Leisure Time/kimstim has announced that it willrelease Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf's "Blackboards" this fall. Thecompany has acquired the movie and will open it at the Quad Cinema in NYCbefore taking the movie to other major U.S. cities.

"Blackboards," a prize winner at Cannes 2000, is Makhmalbaf's secondfeature, her follow-up to "The Apple." The movie was co-written by herfather Moshen Makhmalbaf, an acclaimed filmmaker from Iran.

The film is described in a prepared statement as the story of "a group ofitinerant teachers who wander the remote Kurdish villages along themountainous Iran-Iraq border in search of pupils."

Other Leisure Time/kimstim releases include "Code Unknown" by MichaelHaneke, "The River" by Tsai Ming-liang, and "Skin of Man, Heart of Beast" by Helene Angel. [Eugene Hernandez]

(indieWIRE: 07.10.02) -- An announcement by Britain's Channel 4 yesterdayaffirmed trade reports about the fate of FilmFour Ltd., the channel's stand-alone film production and distribution subsidiary; And, nominations for the2002 Open Palm Award, one of the honors presented during the year's annualGotham Awards, were announced last night at Prada Broadway in New York'sSoHo."